Electrically controlled locking mechanism and embossed card key therefor



Oct. 16, 1962 R. P. NOREGAARD ELECTRICALLY CONTROLLED LOCKING MECHANISMAND EMBOSSED CARD KEY THEREFOR Filed Aug. 8, 1960 INSULATION D A r MW 01N 7 R D N m m M w a a United States Patent 3,059,070 ELECTRICALLYCONTROLLED LOCKING MECH- ANISM AND EMBOSSED CARD KEY THEREFOR Raymond P.Noregaard, 3240 NE. 75th Ave., Portland, Oreg. Filed Aug. 8, 1960, Ser.No. 48,209 2 Claims. (Cl. 20046) This invention relates to improvementsin the type of key-actuated, electrically-controlled locking mechanismshown and described in my co-pending application Serial No. 40,923,filed July 5, 1960, and wherein the key is in the form of an embossedcard in possession of members in good standing of, for example, a club,fraternal organization, industrial plants and the like where only suchmembers in good standing as evidenced by a valid card are admissible.

A valid card in effecting operation of the locking mechanism actuatesone or more plungers to permit movement of switch-closing means, and aninvalid card will actuate at least one other plunger to render theswitch-closing means inoperable.

Another specific object of the present invention is to provide animproved locking arrangement of the character described which utilizes asingle electrical switch in circuit with the locking mechanism andwherein the plungers may be set relative to the switch-closing means anda locking plate in accordance with a coded arrangement prescribed by theproducers of the cards or in accordance with an arrangement requested bya user of the mechanism.

A further specific object of the invention is to provide an improvedlock arrangement of this character in which an electrical circuit isclosed only upon use of the proper entrance card to effect opening ofthe lock.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages which will becomesubsequently apparent reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof and inwhich:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the invention with a fragment of thecover plate broken away for convenience of illustration.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional side elevational view taken approximately alongthe line 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view of the right-hand end of FIGURE 2.

FIGURES 4 and 5 are top plan and side elevational views respectively ofan embossed card key.

FIGURE 6 is a Wiring diagram, and FIGURE 7 is a detail plan view of ahousing.

With continuing reference to the drawing wherein like referencecharacters designate like parts, and particularly to FIGURES l to 6thereof, reference numeral 1 indicates generally a card receptaclecomprising a base member 2 made of dielectric material, flanged as at 3along both of its sides, rounded at its front top edge as at 4, andreduced in thickness as at 6 at its rearward end.

A housing 8 is supported upon the flanges 3 of the base member andwithin the housing is slidably mounted a switch-actuating member 9 alsomade of dielectric material and provided with a downwardly flangedrearward end indicated at 10. A cover plate 12 is provided for thehousing 8 and is secured to the base member 2 by means of bolts 14extending through the cover plate and into the base member. A toplocking plate 18 and a bottom locking plate 19 are secured together andto the underside of the cover plate 12 by means of the bolts 14. Thereduced rearward end 6 of the base member 2 is provided with a switchindicated generally at 3,059,070 Patented Oct. 16, 1962 ice 20,comprising a spring contact finger 21 and a fixed contact 22 bothsecured at their bottom end to said portion 6.

As shown in FIGURE 6, the fixed contact 22 is connected by wire 25 withone side of a battery 26 whose opposite side is connected by wire 27 toone side of a solenoid 28 of an electric latching mechanism indicatedgenerally at L. The other side of the solenoid is connected by wire 30with the spring contact finger 21 and from the foregoing it will beobvious that moving the switch-actuating member 9 to the left as viewedin FIG- URE 2 will close the circuit through the switch to the lockingmechanism for actuating the same.

As best illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2 the top locking plate 18 isprovided with certain oblong openings 35 in open communication withcircular openings 36 in the bottom locking plate 19 and this plate 19has oblong openings 42 in communication with circular openings 43 in thetop locking plate 18. The circular openings in both plates are alignedwith openings 50 in the switchactuating member 9. Locking pins 51,having heads 52, extend downwardly through the openings 50 in the member9 and through elongated openings 60 in the bottom wall 62 of the housing8. Although only four locking pins are shown in a characteristicarrangement, it will be readily understood that a greater or lessernumber of pins may be used if desired.

The oblong openings and circular openings in both plates 18 and 19 arearranged in transverse rows identified as A, B and C and in longitudinalrows numbered 1, 2 and 3. By means of this coded arrangement a user ofthe apparatus desiring to have valid membership cards embossed to liftthe pins in accordance with his own selected arrangement can instructthe producer of the cards by an order written in code. For example,coded instructions to produce a card 65 as shown in FIGURE 4 andembossed as at 66, 67 and 68, the coded order would read: A-3, B-1, andC-2.

A membership card so embossed would be a valid one and therefore wheninserted into the receptacle between the housing 8 and the top surfaceof the base member 2, the embossments on the card will lift the pins inthe corresponding locations as shown in FIGURE 1 to position the headsof the pins within the oblong openings 35 in the top plate 19 so thatwhen the fully inserted card abuts the flanged rearward end 10 of theswitch-actuating member 9, it will move this member to the left andhence the spring contact 21 into contact with the fixed contact 22 andthereby close the circuit therethrough.

The oblong openings 35 in the top plate and the elongated openings 60 inthe bottom wall of the housing 8 will permit of such movement. If anattempt is made to use an out-dated or invalid card, wherein a nownon-conforming embossment 71 is located as shown in broken lines, itwill elevate the pin 51 in the corresponding position to lift the headof that pin into the circular opening 43 in the top plate and thusprevent any movement of the switch-actuating member 9. The same appliesto invalid cards wherein other embossments might be located to registerwith pins occupying positions at B-3 and C-1.

Although I have shown the openings 35, 42 and 60 as oblong, it will bereadily understood that they could all be circular openings of unlikediameters to permit of the movement of the pins and the heads as abovepointed out.

While I have shown a particular form of embodiment of my invention, I amaware that many minor changes therein will readily suggest themselves toothers skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Having thus described my invention what I claim as newand desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A switch device comprising a receptacle having a card-receivingpocket, said pocket defined by a switchclosing means slidable relativeto a base member in spaced relation thereto, a locking plate disposedabove said switch-closing means and having circular openings and oblongopenings therein arranged in a characteristic pattern, a plurality oflocking pins slidably extending through said switch-closing vmeans andterminating in heads disposed within said openings and said heads beingof diameters substantially equal to the diameters of said circularopenings in the locking plate, the bottom ends of said pins terminatingwithin said pocket, a switch carried by the receptacle, a card havingembossments thereon adapted when the card is inserted into thereceptacle to actuate certain of said pins to position their respectiveheads within certain of said oblong openings to thereby permit movementof said switch-closing means relative to the base member to aswitch-closing position.

2. A switch device comprising a receptacle having a card-receivingpocket, said pocket defined by a switchclosing means slidable relativeto a base member in spaced relation thereto, a locking plate disposedabove said switch-closing means and having circular openings and oblongopenings therein arranged in a characteristic pattern, a plurality oflocking pins slidably extending through said switch-closing means andprovided with heads of diameters substantially equal to the diameters ofsaid circular openings in the locking plate, a switch carried by thereceptacle, a card having embossments thereon matching thecharacteristic pattern of said circular and oblong openings to thusidentify the card as a valid one and adapted when the card is insertedinto the receptacle to actuate certain of said pins to position theirrelative heads within certain of said oblong openings to thereby permitmovement of said lock member relative to the base member to aswitch-closing position, and whereby a card having at least onenon-pattern-matching embossment thereon and thereby identified as aninvalid card will position the head of a pin aligned with saidembossment into one of said circular openings in said top locking plateto thereby prevent movement of said locking member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,566,017 Cooley Aug. 28, 1951 2,892,907 Richmond et a1 June 30, 19592,931,953 Barney Apr. 5, 1960

